AIRPORT REPORT: NASHVILLE
The best of Nashville
President and CEO, Doug Kreulen, tells Joe Bates why expansion and future traffic growth continue to be a key focus for Nashville International Airport.
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ashville International Airport (BNA) is an airport with a plan, it aims to become one of the most modern gateways in the US and future large hub, and despite the impact of COVID-19, it is well on its way to achieving at least one of those goals. Arguably, when most people think of Nashville and the State of Tennessee, they think of the city as being the spiritual home of country and western music and the Grand Ole Opry. However, to those in the know, the city of Nashville is much more than that. Indeed, it is one of the top medical centres in the US, a significant player in the automotive and high-tech industries, a growing location for finance and logistics companies and an established conference venue. While the Great Smokey Mountains National Park, the nation’s most visited national park, is on its doorstep and attracts millions of visitors each year, many of which arrive in Tennessee via BNA, which is a vital economic generator for the entire region, being directly and indirectly responsible for some 76,000 jobs and $8.1 billion in economic activity. The combination of Nashville’s robust economy and business and tourism appeal led to seven successive years of often double-digit growth, which ended on a high with the record 18.3 million passengers that passed through the airport in 2019. The dramatic upturn in traffic up until the outbreak of COVID-19 is likened to 21 years’ of growth in seven years by Metropolitan Nashville Airports Authority (MNAA) president and CEO, Doug Kreulen, who notes that the airport started work on its $1.4 billion BNA Vision master plan in 2017 to ensure that it did not become a victim of its own success and run out of capacity. Now in full swing, the game changing master plan last year delivered a new Concourse D, two expanded ticketing wings each with their own security checkpoint, and two new parking garages. Still to come is a spacious new terminal lobby, International Arrivals Facility and an on-airport Hilton hotel, while BNA’s runways and roadways
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AIRPORT WORLD/ISSUE 1, 2021
will be renovated and improved, and a host of new retail and F&B outlets opened in a new central marketplace. The ultimate plan for this phase of BNA Vision is to have an airport capable of handling in excess of 36 million passengers annually by 2024. And for those of you thinking that the timing couldn’t have been worse, think again, as the airlines are fully supportive of BNA’s upgrade and the MNAA has actually used the current decline in passenger numbers to bring some projects forward by a year or more. Explaining the reasons behind the decision to fast track some BNA Vision projects instead of putting them on hold or cancelling them all together, Kreulen says: “With challenges come opportunities, and having less people to work around provided us with the chance to minimise any future disruption by completing some projects earlier than originally planned. “Make no mistake about it, we need these new facilities as we are fast outgrowing our existing ones and the new additions will significantly improve our operational efficiency and customer service levels and ensure that we are better placed to achieve our long-term ambitions. “Pre-COVID, Nashville was ranked the 31st busiest airport in the United States and basically one of the biggest medium-sized hubs in the country. What we want to do is catch up with our friends in Portland and Honolulu to enter into the large hub system, and I firmly believe that the new facilities will help us achieve this goal.”
New Concourse D and other 2020 highlights Opened in July 2020, the airport’s new $292 million Concourse D is a key element of the airport’s billion dollar BNA Vision master plan. The 115,000-square-foot complex has added six new domestic aircraft gates, public art, and a variety of traveller amenities, along with improved ramp facilities and function space.
